Presidente Bush continues to do his best in order to placate the GOP and Republican voters by finally signing the U.S.-Mexican border fence bill that rubber-stamps the building of 700 miles of fencing somewhere along the southern American border. The signing ceremony was slightly meager, but ample enough to garner media, and consequently public attention in a time when the Republican leadership needs exposure the most–elections are but a scant two weeks distant.

During the signing, Bush spewed forth some drivel about how the United States has lost control of its borders. Here’s a quote from the succeeding linked story.

“Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise,” Bush said at a signing ceremony.

“We have a responsibility to enforce our laws,” he said. “We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility serious.”

He called the fence bill “an important step in our nation’s efforts to secure our borders.”

Of course, we all know Bush is talking out of his ass. He doesn’t mean a single word of what he belched forth during todays signing ceremony, most evidenced by his following comments propagandizing his preposterous guest worker program that will in essence legalize at minimum 12 million illegal aliens.

For now though, Bush simply wants to avoid a crushing defeat of the GOP at the polls in a couple of weeks, which is why he also issued his timely atonement for the loss of lives in Iraq coinciding so near to the November elections.

Don’t fall prey to these obvious attempts at misdirection. Bush does not want this fence, just as he does not want to leave Iraq. What surprises me though is this concept of capitulation that Bush is adhering to concerning illegal aliens and the border fence. The Republican Party has, at least in the past 60 years or so, consistently been tough on illegal immigration. Even in the last couple of decades, whenever a candidate, Republican or not, takes a hard stand against illegal immigration, that candidate usually wins whatever post he was campaigning for. Why then would Bush simply not follow this tried and true edict? Why would he choose to legalize up to 20 million illegal aliens? Why would he not want to secure our border? Why is he so sympathetic to Mexican and Latin American people when many American citizens are in desperate need of help themselves?

My only answer to these questions–pessimism for the future of the United States. Bush believes that protecting our borders is moot at this point to such a degree that the tide cannot be kept at bay. Better to let it wash over us, drown us, turn us into a third world nation in order to ensure that those waves of illegals will remember that it was the GOP who allowed them to come into the country and exist legally, maintaining a hope that when future elections come, the Latino community will recognize who it was that granted them this great gift and vote Republican.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they’re tough on illegal immigration.

“Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise,” Bush said at a signing ceremony.

“We have a responsibility to enforce our laws,” he said. “We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility serious.”

He called the fence bill “an important step in our nation’s efforts to secure our borders.”

And a handful of House Republican are at the brakes, blocking negotiations with the Senate for a bill that includes the president’s proposal.

Still, Bush argues that it would be easier to get his guest worker program passed if Republicans keep their majorities in the House and Senate after the Nov. 7 elections. His proposal would allow legal employment for foreigners and give some of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a shot at becoming American citizens.

The measure Bush put into law Thursday before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the fence project covering one-third of the 2,100-mile border.

Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

Mexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence “shameful” and compares it to the Berlin Wall.(Hecubus note – Vicente, you ignorant person, you. The Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in, not keep people out. We want to keep people out.)

Others have doubts about its effectiveness.

“A fence will slow people down by a minute or two, but if you don’t have the agents to stop them it does no good. We’re not talking about some impenetrable barrier,” T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing Border Patrol agents, said Wednesday.

Customs and Border Protection statistics show that apprehensions at border crossings are down 8 percent nationally for the budget year that just ended, Bonner said. Apprehensions were up in the San Diego sector, he said, an area of the nearly 2,000-mile border that has the most fencing.

A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection would not confirm the statistics or discuss reasons for the increase in the San Diego sector.

Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both Texas Republicans, had wanted to amend the fence bill to give local governments more say about where fencing is erected. They lost that battle, but Republican leaders assured them the Homeland Security Department would have flexibility to choose other options instead of fencing, if needed.

Cornyn said he voted for the fence because he wanted to help demonstrate that Congress was serious about border security.

“The choice we were presented was: Are we going to vote to enhance border security, or against it?” Cornyn said. “I think that’s how the vote was viewed.”